INTERNET
RELIGION

Topics: Absolutes; Authority; Beliefs; Bible; Doctrine; False Beliefs; Humanism; Inspiration of Scripture; Postmodernism; Relativism; Religion; Scripture; Secularism; Truth

References: 2 Samuel 23:1–2; Nehemiah 9:13–14; Matthew 24:35; 1 Corinthians 14:36–37; Galatians 1:11–12; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20–21; 1 John 5:9

Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, has inspired a new religion. Yoism, invented by a Massachusetts psychologist, is based on the “open source” principle that the general public creates a combined, creative authority and source of truth.

Yoism operates and evolves over the Internet and has numerous contributors. It shuns traditional religious authorities and divine inspiration in favor of the wisdom of humans. Bob Dylan, Albert Einstein, and Sigmund Freud are among its revered saints.

Dan Kriegman founded Yoism in 1994 to make religion open to change and responsive to the wisdom of people everywhere. “I don’t think anyone has ever complained about something that didn’t lead to some revision or clarification in the Book of Yo,” Kriegman says. “Every aware, conscious, sentient spirit is divine and has direct access to truth.… Open source embodies that. There is no authority.”

—Charles Piller, “Divine Inspiration from the Masses,” LA Times (July 23, 2006)